Position Paper B

Country: USA
School: Colegio Ingles
Committee: UNODC
Topic: Eradicating and Preventing Money Laundering Worldwide.
Delegate: Bruno Mendez

Money laundering is the process of concealing thesource of money obtained by illicit means. The amount of money laundered each year is in the billions of US dollars. Money laundering often occurs in three steps: first, cash is introduced into thefinancial system by some means ("placement"), the second involves carrying out complex financial transactions in order to camouflage the illegal source ("layering"), and the final step entails acquiringwealth generated from the transactions of the illicit funds ("integration"). Some of the three steps may be omitted depending on the situation. “Bank methods”, “Smurfing” and “currency exchanges” aresome of the forms of money laundering. The term “Money Laundering” is said to originate from Mafia ownership of Laundromats in the United States. They were gangsters that earned huge amounts of moneyfrom illegal means such as; extortion, prostitution, gambling and bootleg liquor. They needed to show that they earned that money from legal means, so that is where money laundering began.

The UnitedStates’ position in this topic has tried to stop and prevent money laundering in many ways. For example, in 1970 the United States established the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), which has become one of themost important tools in the fight against money laundering. Since the BSA there have been numerous other laws that have enhanced and amended the BSA to provide law enforcement and regulatory agencieswith the most effective tools to combat money laundering. The Bank Secrecy Act authorizes the Treasury Department to require financial institutions to maintain records of personal financialtransactions that "have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax and regulatory investigations and proceedings." It also authorizes the Treasury Department to require any financial institution to report...